Yuichiro carefully set Guren aside.
Guren wanted to stop Yuichiro; without his Seraph transformation, Yuichiro was no match for Luke.
However, in his agitation, he accidentally spat out several teeth, with blood flowing from the corner of Guren's mouth.
This scene triggered Yuichiro's nerves. He stood up, staring at Luke with onikiri in hand, his voice thick with rage.
"You bastard, to injure Guren like this! Mika trusted you so much, and the children missed you too..."
Luke frowned and quickly interrupted him.
"Stop! Master, stop preaching. My beating Guren has no conflict with their attitude toward me. Why don't you think about it? There are so many orphans in the apocalypse; why did he only adopt the children from the Hyakuya Orphanage? What was he after? Your appetite? Your gullibility?"
Luke used his foot to draw a circle with a diameter of fifty centimeters around himself and said to Yuichiro,
"I've always been easy to talk to. How about this: if you can knock me out of this circle within ten minutes, you can take Ichinose Guren with you. But if you can't, you'll have to choose between taking Ichinose or taking Guren."
"onikiri! Let's go!"
demon markings climbed up his cheeks as Yuichiro charged forward.
Luke still smiled calmly.
"How impatient. A new sword? It looks quite cool!"
No matter how strong Luke was, he couldn't block Cursed Gear with bare hands, so he took asuramaru off his back to meet onikiri.
Without the cloth barrier, asuramaru began to corrode Luke's right hand, but Luke did not summon Kael.
Seeing the familiar japanese sword in Luke's hand, the fire in Yuichiro's eyes grew even more intense.
"Give asuramaru back to me!"
"What do you mean 'give it back'? I exchanged your teammate's life for this. You clearly agreed at the time; are you regretting it now?"
Every one of Yuichiro's attacks was easily parried by Luke.
Luke only defended and did not attack, allowing Yuichiro to clearly feel the strength gap between them.
Yuichiro's brute force slashes, which had been invincible before, lost their effect; Luke never moved a single step.
But a few minutes later, a hint of surprise gradually appeared on Luke's face.
Yuichiro's new weapon was a bit strange. While it's true that using cursed gear for long periods affects the host, it had only been a few minutes. Even when just borrowing its power, the purpose of every one of Yuichiro's strikes was no longer to force him out of the circle.
"Hahahahaha, kill, kill, kill! Kill you, cut off your limbs, hahahahaha!"
Moreover, Yuichiro's speed and power were now about three times what they were at the start.
"Terrifying. asuramaru, what do you think?"
Luke's defense remained effortless as asuramaru's voice emerged.
"Go for it, go for it! Go Yu-kun, go Luke! This is so embarrassing, are you two working so hard for my sake?"
Luke sighed.
"Don't change the subject."
"I don't know, but without a doubt, the rank of the demon on the other side is similar to mine. And judging by the Demonic Aura, that side has killed quite a few demons."
"Oh? Is there anything special about that?"
asuramaru organized his thoughts and explained,
"After other demons are killed by him, their curse power converges on him. This will give him stronger desires, and he will crave more. But at the same time, the binding power of the Cursed Gear contract over him will decrease. That is to say, if he wants to, he can take control of Yu-kun's body at any time. It has its pros and cons."
This was the first time Luke had heard of this, and he asked in confusion,
"Then why doesn't he just take over Yuichiro's body and move around? That would be more interesting than staying in a sword, wouldn't it?"
asuramaru did not answer, as this involved the secrets within Yuichiro's body.
But what seemed like a secret to him was no secret at all to Luke, who thought of a possibility.
"It's because of the Seraph, right?"
The Demonic Aura emanating from asuramaru's blade thickened slightly; he was clearly startled, but he quickly comforted himself.
It's not strange that this guy knows. Not strange at all.
"Since you know, there's no need to hide it from you. If he takes brief control while Yu-kun isn't paying attention, it's fine. But once Yu-kun's consciousness reacts and resists, he's essentially fighting against the Seraph, which is very troublesome."
Luke nodded; he more or less understood now.
"So that means if Yuichiro actively borrows power, he can easily seize control? I'd really like to meet it—the demon inside!"
While the 'playing house' continued here, on the other side, the Shinoa Squad had entered a Purgatory-level dungeon.
"...Four of them. That should be all, right? What exactly is he planning?"
Krul Tepes clapped her hands, having tied up Shinoa Hiragi, Mitsuba, and the others together.
"Lady Krul, why tie them up? Why not just kill them?"
Lacus and René arrived with the injured Mika and the unconscious Hiiragi Shinya, seeing this scene as soon as they arrived.
"I don't know."
Under the questioning gazes of the Vampires, Krul pointed in Luke's direction.
"Luke asked me to do it. I don't know what use it has. He said these people are some kind of 'dungeon keys,' which I don't understand either. Anyway, what happened to them?"
Lacus threw Shinya to the side and explained,
"Shinya turned traitor and rescued the Imperial Demon Army squad from our hands—these guys here. Mika was injured by him. I really don't know how he's using a cursed gear weapon now that he's turned into a Vampire."
Mika, supported by René, took over the conversation, his voice weak but angry.
"So, I say we should just kill him. Why keep a guy like this around?"
"Calm down, Mika. After all, he's the Cute King's subordinate. We have to see what the Cute King says regardless."
Krul understood the situation and said to Lacus and the others,
"You can ask him yourselves later. Go deal with the Imperial Demon Army first; I'll stand guard here."
René helped Mika sit on the ground to rest, then headed to the battlefield with Lacus.
Krul crouched down and said to Shinoa Hiragi,
"Stop pretending. I held back on purpose when I caught you. So, you heard quite a bit, didn't you?"
Shinoa opened her eyes and gave a bitter smile.
"Ahaha, what are you talking about?"
Krul ignored Shinoa's feigned ignorance. She organized her thoughts and asked quietly,
"How did you and Luke meet?"
Shinoa was shocked. She really hadn't expected Krul to ask this; the various answers she had racked her brain to prepare suddenly became useless.
Mika, resting nearby, also looked incredulous. He resisted the urge to look over and cast his gaze toward the battlefield.
I didn't hear anything, I didn't... Wait, that's Yu-kun and Luke! Damn it, I can't stand up!
"Hey, Mika kid, behave. Your 'Yu' or whatever won't be in danger! Stay quiet!"
Seeing Mika actually trying to crawl toward Luke's side, Krul scolded him.
Mika struggled internally for a moment, and seeing that Luke indeed hadn't attacked proactively, he answered dejectedly,
"Yes..."
Luke, don't hurt Yu-kun!
You will get 30 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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